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Cheshire
Appearance Cheshire is enormous and beastlike, a mess of scars and madness. He looks like he's held together with stitches and surgical staples over his many scars, and he grins constantly. His coat is black and almost seems like scales instead of hide, and his mane and tail are shaggy and messy. His eyes are also violet, his teeth are large and sharp, and his hooves have split apart into rough claws, giving him a very fearsome appearance. His first distinction from the other Replicants is clear in the fact that Cheshire actually has to be called by Thesis to appear: the other Replicants come out with pretty clear pomp and swagger. And another distinction is made shortly: Thesis only gently shushes Cheshire, but Cheshire's reaction to this is clearly one of fear, and on a very primal level. Psychological Conditioning Focusing first for a moment on Cheshire's relationship with Thesis, it should be noted that while the other Replicants act on their own, Thesis always acts as Cheshire's "handler," giving him very clear, direct orders, and always present wherever Cheshire is: even after Cheshire's final unsuccessful attack, Thesis immediately appeared afterwards to retrieve Cheshire, inferring he was watching the entire time. Thesis talks down to Cheshire, using terms like "bad pony" and "they hurt us" in order to better manipulate the little logical mind that Cheshire has left. Thesis also threatens to "treat Cheshire like a bad pony," and with more outright threats of pain and torture if Cheshire doesn't do what he's told; ironic, because at one point Thesis punishes Cheshire because he did what Thesis told him to do, and attacked Luna and Scrivener 19: Spoliation, during the hologram, heavily implied. Cheshire, while capable of surviving anything Thesis can do to him, doesn't possess enough of a logical mind to understand he can try and run away from Thesis or resist: all he knows is that if he doesn't do what he's told or fails in the simple missions he's given, Thesis will hurt him, which is in large part what drives his conflict with the "bad ponies." Both inside and outside of conflict, Cheshire's mind is very animal. He's only capable of very simple leaps of logic and basic problem solving, such as how he's easily herded by barriers and during battle, literally throws himself at the enemy again and again. He's also easily startled, particularly by light and loud sound 35: Cry Havoc, reaction to gate alarm, and he's driven by a fairly simple fight-or-flight instinct, as noted in his melee with Celestia. After recovering from a normally-lethal injury, Cheshire stops fighting and tries to cower away from Celestia. But he becomes much more aggressive when Celestia is joined by two others and she makes a clear threat towards him, and Cheshire feels cornered. Later in the fight, Cheshire suffers a massive, systemic injury. The pain is again incredible to imagine, and Cheshire is once more faced with three opponents: he recognizes that he's hurt them badly, but all Cheshire's mind can focus on is how much pain he's in. Again, fight-or-flight kicks in, and this time Cheshire flees. The amount of damage he's done to Celestia and company is irrelevant, because his animal mind can't even assess that: all it can see is the damage that's been done to him, and all he wants to do is get away from the aversive stimulus (the giant pony repeatedly beating the living hell out of him). It's very important to recognize this: Cheshire's instincts are very animal and simple, but that doesn't make him psychopathic or sociopathic. He's spent his entire life being tortured, then locked away, then tortured but this time also used as a hunting dog to capture "bad ponies." He's not incapable of empathy, and his natural inclination is not to do harm to others, but it appears that way because the only context he's ever framed in is that of Thesis' hunting dog, until Scrivener and Luna actually step in to protect him. Cheshire's behavior at that point admittedly does seem like a sudden turnaround, but only because there was no real valid way to show Cheshire's real personality behind the pain-driven "bad guy" he's presented as thanks to the fact that Thesis is always there, whipping him on and threatening him with more torture. This is also partly where Cheshire's tic comes in: his recitation of poems, phrases, and pieces of writing. Cheshire doesn't do this to be creepy but this has become the only (semi)coherent way he can display his emotions, apart from screaming and cowering. It serves as both a minor method of communication and could be theorized to be part of a stereotypic movement disorder, although the vocalization is atypical in the fact that it doesn't seem repetitive: repetition could be theorized to be present because he compulsively speaks poetry fragments over and over, and physically his movements are clumsy and often feature shivering or the same heavy movements, and he's stimulated by excitement, which is not a common feature of the more generic tic. Eventually, Luna and Scrivener defeat Cheshire using a combination of White Matter agent and a dual attack. Cheshire is left beaten and broken, but Scrivener can't deliver the final blow: he sees too much of his old self in Cheshire, who is left crying and terrified. Instead, he and Luna show Cheshire compassion, which he doesn't entirely understand at first. Likewise, when Thesis appears, both his programming and his fear of Thesis are so great that he still goes to him when called, despite his terror, demonstrating his mental conditioning towards a state of learned helplessness. This state of learned helplessness is very important to recognize: this is why Cheshire rarely reacts unless ordered to do something, even when physically harmed or threatened. Even with his enormous size and incredible regenerative capacity, he can no more process the idea of actually using these things to his advantage any more than he can understand a door can be opened by simply turning the handle. His ability to reason and make logical deductions have both been severely impaired, and this is why he does not always seem to act coherently or rationally in any given situation. Furthermore, it's also why he requires someone to take orders from, and why he often takes sarcasm or teasing as serious orders 60: Methods of Atonement, "Thou should get up on stage". After defeating Cheshire, Luna and Scrivener have established themselves as the 'greater authority' to Cheshire through their use of raw force, but they also introduce another element that is alien to Cheshire: they purposefully place themselves between Cheshire and Thesis in an act of both protection and compassion. Cheshire is already beaten and submissive, and now sees his former 'alpha' being challenged and then driven off. Even running mostly off instinct, he realizes that he's been abandoned by Thesis, and because of his state of learned helplessness, the fact that Thesis used mainly torture and punishment to control him, and Luna and Scrivener have just inflicted more damage to his body than presumably Thesis himself ever had, he attaches himself to them out of the need for guidance and direction. Cheshire also develops an attachment to Innocence, likely because of a multitude of reasons. His orders to capture her are already long forgotten thanks to the way Cheshire processes information, and how Luna and Scrivener's 'takeover' has wiped out Cheshire's previous 'programming' by Thesis. Cheshire is extremely uncomfortable at first around Innocence, but gradually grows fascinated with her, and can clearly be trusted to take care of her after some time: a major part of the reason for this is that he recognizes her as being dependent on others at this stage in her life, and instinctively feels that he has to protect her. Innocence becomes a motivator for him to continue to try and overcome his own state of learned helplessness. This marks a major turning point in his evolution, as he begins to try and heal over a long period of time, effort, and with a lot of help from what becomes his close unit of friends. Category:Characters Category:Replicants Category:Clockwork Ponies